Xbox Music is now available for Android and iOS, also offers free streaming on the web

We know you have an Android or iOS device hanging around you somewhere. It might be an iPad Mini or Nexus 7 that you bought just to tide you over till similar sized tablets running Windows 8.1 became available. Or maybe you just really like technology and like to stay up to date. Either way, your Xbox Music collection will now be with you anywhere. The app is available for Android and iOS.

We’ve been living with Xbox Music since Windows Phone 8 launched last fall and effectively killed Zune. When you compare Zune to Xbox Music you’ll get reactions all over the spectrum, but a lot of folks didn’t see the need to kill Zune. At least now a lot of features it had that Xbox Music omitted. Sure, Xbox Music has made some recent strides lately and is now finally usable on Windows 8.1, but it’s got a bit more work to do before catching up in features with Zune. But it’s doing something that Zune never did. It’s giving user with Android and iOS devices the chance to tap into their music library wherever they are.

Don’t fret though, the Android and iOS apps are completely up to feature parity with Windows Phone or Windows 8 just yet. For example, offline mode and artist based radio will be coming in the later months.

Feeling left out with above news? Don’t, because Xbox Music is getting better on Windows 8 and the web too.

Starting today, you’ll have access to free streaming on the web with Xbox Music. Just navigate your browser to http://music.xbox.com and you’ll be able to listen to music for free. And if you’re signed in with your Microsoft Account you’ll get access to your cloud collection in Xbox Music.

Earlier this summer at //BUILD/ 2013 Microsoft demoed a new feature with Xbox Music. The feature was called Web Playlist and sounds beyond useful. Web Playlist will scan a web page (think of a music festival site) and automatically create a playlist for you in Xbox Music from the music on that page. Unfortunately that feature won’t be coming until October 18th, the day Windows 8.1 launches.

Microsoft has also detailed a new feature that’s part of the upcoming changes to Bing on Windows 8.1. When you search for an artist using Bing Smart Search you’ll be able to automatically play their content with Xbox Music. If you’re running the Windows 8.1 Preview you can already experience this by typing an artist name into the Search charm.

What do you guys think of the changes with Xbox Music? Sound off below.

For Android, the apps is available for devices with Android 4.0 and above. Get it on Play.

For iOS, the app is available for devices with iOS 6.0 and above. Get it in the App Store

Im wondering when hey will fix xbox music on windows/wp in general. Pretty unusable at this time. Cant sync, duplicate songs, cant buy multiple tracks at one time. Theres more but whats the point, MS doesnt listen or doesnt care.

I don't own one ios or android device. Before I hopped on the MS train, I had a blackberry. Didn't see the need for a tablet until my laptop died, then I got a surface pro. I have an xbox360, lumia920, zunehd, and surface pro. Very happy customer I must add

I'm still using Zune... but the streaming options is what intrigues me.

So currently, whenever I go to Xbox Music (via my phone, web or Xbox), all I see are the few albums I actually purchased from Zune, and I am able to stream those via the cloud.

If I wanted to add my entire collection of MP3s, I would need to move my music files to a Win 8 machine and use the Xbox Music App? So then it would essentially work like the Google Music site? I have something like 50GBs of music, is there a limit? And would I be able to stream those for free?

Gah iOS app isn't Universal. Oh well, uninstalled from iPad and will be sticking with rdio. XBox Music (and Spotify) does have a few artists I like that rdio doesn't, so I always look to switch...but I always end up back with rdio as for me, it's the best overall service.
I will say, whichever streaming service figures out how to easily import your collection and playlists from competing services will win lots of customers. Imagine being able to switch between accounts with XBox Music, rdio, and Spotify without having to re-add albums and recreate your playlists. It sounds like MS could leverage the Web Playlist technology to do that.

This kind of brings up something I've been thinking about for a while. My wife has an iPhone and I've been curious about the best way to share services between our phones. I've just been trying to figure out the best way for a family to share services like this, and things like OneNote and calendars. Can she sign into the service using my Windows ID so she can use it on her phone? Do people set up a family Windows ID and have everyone use that?

Why does ms shoot themselves in the foot by offering this to their competition. If Xbox is the go to brand and sets itself apart from the other brands why offer it to them, especially when we don't have 1st party apps from them either. Case in point: YouTube

I would use Xbox Music instead of Spotify on my PC if there was a desktop app available... Instead of having to use the the Metro app... I pretty much stay only on the Desktop on Windows 8, and if Microsoft did release a desktop app I can imagine a lot of Windows 7 users would be greatful too. I know you can now access it from the Website to stream music but it's not the same as having a standalone app like Spotify do.

I think this is a smart move to take a little bit of wind out of Apples announcement tomorrow. The announcement will likely include iRadio. Having the XBox music app released in iOS App store the day before is smart in my opinion. Because Microsoft is a device and services company it needs as many people using its services as possible, even if some of those people are using other devices. With Microsoft having a foothold within the iOS and Android ecosystem keeps with some IOS and Android users using some Microsoft services it keeps those users from being totally assimilated into the iOS and Android ecosystem. Both iOS and Android offer an Office productivity product, and mobile is replacing PCs for many tasks, if MS didn't offer Mobike office on those platforms, each of those companies would continue to improve their own offerings and people would begin getting more comfortable using them and MS could potentially lose Office faithful's to alternative software. (Apple improved their Pages etc, to be more compatible with word and I believe it MAY be free in iOS7).
So with this iRadio, and the millions of users of iOS devices (an d Android with is streaming service) MS needs to offer an alternative to them to lessen there integration into those ecosystems. We all know once someone is locked into an ecosystem its hard to convert them. This is particularly true with Apple users because it is so closed in. So if MS can get an"in". I say go for it. And go hard! :-)

I don't see why people are offended by these new apps though. We've had these features since Windows Phone launched via Zune and Windows Phone8/Xbox Music have been decent (if not perfect) and available to use since they launched too.

Why be so precious about more people using the service? The only reason Microsoft have been able to be so half hearted with it in the past is because relatively the user base is very very small but they're finally building it up into something that can compete.
Yeah, it's taking them some time, and Zune was already pretty great, but they realised their mistake and have spent a lot of time making it a better service the past few months and now they're out in front of 90% of the smartphone market? Well, they've already said they plan on releasing new updates every 4-6 weeks and because it's a service, that means new features for everyone.

People here are always complaining when iOS and Android get things before Windows Phone, why shouldn't Xbox Music get out there to everyone else? More users means MS have to build a better system, one that competes with iTunes just as much as it does with Spotify.

I'd expect to see an Xbox Music desktop app for Windows 7 early next year too. Their biggest potential market are Win7 users.

Oh, also, these new apps have nowhere near the features Windows 8/WP7/8 have. It's streaming only.

This is a good thing. The sooner MS get their services out to the wider audience those services become public knowledge, more people start using them, and maybe more people will try out Windows Phone because of that.

If they don't, then at least they're using the same services we are and therefore we'll all benefit from any improvements and new features made.

This is great news! A lot of my friends have been interested in Xbox Music when I've told them about it (Mostly iPhone users, for whom subscription based services are still quite alien) and the lack of cross-platform apps were a problem.

Still, until now the service hasn't really been ready.

While I still use Zune Desktop (Xbox Music almost destroyed my music collection last October when W8 RTM'd so I've not gone back yet) because for someone who used Zune it's a complete hassle.

For new users, it's actually a great service. If you're starting out new, maybe only streaming, or perhaps just an iTunes library, it imports things properly now, it doesn't mess up your existing playlists and duplicate individual songs. It works quite nicely. The free streaming is also very cool.

I'm going to have to spend some time later in the year (after a few more updates to the Windows 8 and Windows Phone apps, I imagine) to re-organise my music collection and see how is best to proceed.

One thing I do want to do is wipe my Xbox cloud collection and re-import from Zune again. That would make life easier.

While it still takes ages for GDR2 and GDR3 to appear, I would hope MS will release a standalone Xbox Music app for Windows Phone 7 and 8 to use instead of the built in service. Would be a much simpler way to keep everyone updated.

Seems to be like a move to get IOS and Android users to buy X1's as this is more likely than them buying WinP's which is fine. MS is a business after all. What kills me though is how they keep kind if ignoring the needs of current WinP's!!!! Why destroyed Zune for an inferior player???? U know that in their minds we all use their music cloud service and all, but guess what MS, we all don't have unlimited data, and your premier and exclusive partner that has GDR2 sequestered has the most expensive data plans!!!! So no, the cloud is not a solution we can afford. Ok, I feel better now after venting. Sorry about that guys. I just hate seeing companies with great and smart people make the stupidest mistakes. Killing Zune is like Vista part 2.

This service is so bad on Windows and WP, there's nothing Microsoft could do to make me use it but sadly, the service I DO use, Nokia music has been bought by the same incompetent company. Always looking after other platforms before their own, what a great company

I am quickly losing faith in the Nokia & Microsoft tandem. Even though Windows Phone sales are very high in Central Europe (Czech Republic in my case) we still do not have (/cannot buy music through) xbox music, nokia music or any other sane app. That means, that after many years with WP smartphones, we are still left with the very basic music player and that is all. The focus is still on the "golden cow" - USA etc. - even though sales of WP are very low there. If Microsoft cannot provide me with the services others have, than my next phone will be Android.

Shame to lose one of the few exclusives we have, but much like Taptitude, it's for the best that Microsoft spread itself in order to catch on. If they can get people hooked on this service on other platforms, Microsoft promising an even more seamless experience on Windows Phone may help attract customers. But locking it behind a barrier barring all but Windows Phone users will do nothing more than keep the consumers tethered to Pandora, Spotify, etc.

Hopefully this gets more people hooked on the service. Perhaps the Xbox branding will generate interest?

Maybe they should actually improve the experience on WP first then. And this will do squat to bring people to WP, if they were going to switch they would have done so already, not after they get all the unique features of WP on their current platform.

"it's doing something that Zune never did" Yep, sure is. Zune never produced 26 duplicates of every song on my phone. I SO hope that Android & iOS users aren't experiencing the horribly embarrassing Xbox music experience that wp8 delivers, because I think wp is fantastic - it just needs to be fixed!

Correct me please if I'm wrong
But this means that Xbox is free for android and iPhone but you need an Xbox pass for WP ???
As far as I know, I can't use music app now to stream music, just to play music I already have and downloaded from somewhere else I need a pass to do that on WP .

Its funny, the main draw that brought me to wp7 was Zune pass. Other than a 41mp camera, I can't really think of a reason to stick with WP. Gonna be paying close attention to the iPhone 5s announcement.

Yeah, I'm losing patience with WP too. There are just so many little things wrong that are inexcusable, like the way the volume is the same for everything. I get so sick of turning the volume up and down 30 times a day when I go from ringer to music. And I still sometimes forget to turn the volume down before I listen to music and I scare the shit out of myself and almost blow out my headphones and eardrums. I knew from reading reviews when WP8 came out that there were problems but I took Micorsoft at their word that the updates would quickly fix the issues. iOS 7 looks very nice and modern, which was a big part initial appeal of WP for me. It would be nice to go back to a mature OS and never really have to worry about an app not being available. But I will probably wait until Blue comes out if for no other reason than not having enough money.

One of those things that really hurt me. Microsoft keeps on releasing beautiful apps for Android...I mean they even refusing us a common youtube app. If Microsoft is all about money what of Google? Why don't they need money from Microsoft based users? Damn!.... bores me to hell.

It's stricly business. MS would be stupid to ignore the platform that has nearly 70% marketshare. They must maximize their reach, even if it seems to some people that it may canibalize (which it doesn't) their own products. MS Office now has to compete with Open Office, iWork, Libre Office, Google Docs, etc... because they ignored non-MS platforms for too long and allowed that opening.

Call me stupid but I still don't 'get' Xbox Music. I've used the app on my phone but only to listen to music I've either manually imported to my SD card or sync'd with iTunes (and had all the duplicate entries, missing files etc etc). When I've looked at it on my laptop to see what it does I get asked to sign up. Not something I want to do. I've already got Nokia Music and that works fine for mix radio. What more does Xbox music do? Just allow you to listen to specfic tracks and albums a la Spotfiy or Deezer?

You guys wouldn't, by any chance, have some inside info or leaks on expanding the Xbox Music service to other countries? Here in Croatia all we have is Deezer and it's good but since I own Windows 8 everything, I'd like to be able to tap into that perfect source of music and video entertainment that is Xbox. :D

Could they not fix the WP8 XBox Music app first? It's not exactly user-friendly. Also, I still find the various nuances of the service hard to get clear in my head, with offline listening available (only with XBox Music Pass?), online collections, etc. The XBox Music website needs a clear, detailed explanation of everything in long-hand, rather than all the "look at all the cool features" sales-y pages.

It seems that this is a pure business/strategic decision, one which overrides the usability or feature case for cross-platform availability. Obviously Microsoft see more value in getting something out there, regardless of the software's immaturity. With more visibility on other smartphone platforms, you bet they'll up their game in the feature stakes, such that it will soon overtake WP's native app because of its tie to the OS which takes forever to update. This is bad news for WP users and Nokia Music users.

"Obviously Microsoft see more value in getting something out there, regardless of the software's immaturity."
This. I don't really understand this since they're sitting on billions in cash. Couldn't they just throw more money at it to fix their software faster? They've fallen behind so much this year it's worrying.

Am I seeing this right, but in the image showing Xbox Music on all the different devices, I see a new UI for the player on the Windows Phone? The UI seems consistent across the iPhone & Droid. Is this just a mistake in the image, or is a new UI for the player coming in a future update?

God I hope so. There are so many horrific design choices in XBM on WP8:

Needing to leave the app to go to the app/music store for music discovery in an app with a subsciption model (as opposed to pay-per-track) is a terrible design choice

Managing your songs/albums playlists is nearly impossible without resorting to the PC windows phone connector - deleting songs, making playlists, ordering lists by different criteria is made so difficult (the only way to make a playlist is to add your songs to 'now playing' then save that list. It is impossible to re-order songs or manage them in any way)

Song names longer than 20 characters just extend off the edge of the screen with no scrolling and no way to see the full title

No way to delete a whole album off your phone, you have to remove each song individually

Difficult to see which of your tracks are saved to the device and which will stream from the cloud

Difficult to tell it to download a whole playlist to your device if you don't want to stream from the cloud

And SOOO many other bad design choices. The new windows 8 app is brilliant, I wish the UI was like that. Unfortunately XBM is built into WP and cannot be updated as an app, it requires a system update to update XBM. That means it won't show up immediately, but will be packaged with a major update, probably 8.1 but maybe GDR3.

Although those are legitimate problems. How many actually impact your use?
I am using windows Phone 7.5 , and ZUNE software on the pc for management.
I create all the playlists there, and never use the phone for anything but playing
back the playlists.
I never use the streaming music options, and i've never bought a track
from the microsoft music store. I manage all my music offline.

Anyone having difficulty with music.xbox.com? I am getting an error message when I try to use it saying it can't contact the server and whatnot. When I initially went to the site and logged in it also still showed the 30 day trial message as if it were not free.
Is this a US only thing? I am in Germany... frustrating being an American here and not getting access to all these things I had access to in the US.

that is a problem with websites.. i think the app will solve the problem since i can access regonal based apps also when i am not in the region for example BBC iplayer while i am not in the UK anymore but in Europe

I can't stream Xbox Music from the app, either... nor can I access/buy/rent american shows/movies on Xbox Video while abroad. Nor can I use the Netflix app while abroad... Music.xbox.com did work in Germany previously (I tried the 30 day free trial). My question is more whether the free ad-supported streaming is limited to the US only on the web version.

The biggest reason MS is falling behind in some areas is because it is not available everywhere. Mainly in the US only. Same goes for the X1. I heard Xbox isn't doing well in Japan but instead of delaying the X1 a whole year there (and to some other countries) they should push it even more. Delaying it a year just pushes them away even more. I'd love to try Xbox music since I have a beloved 920 but im not even allowed. And yes its been a while already.

Strange one, you would never see Apple releasing itunes for Windows Phone devices. They should be focusing on the functionality before rolling it out as well. Can you manage playlists on your WP8 phone yet for example?

Of course not. All the basic features will first be made available to iOS and Android so users really have no reason to ever switch to WP8 (see Skype). And if they are already there it's a fantastic point to make them leave! It's fascinating to see how MS repels their own user base. No other manufacturer out there would ever do that. A basic feature like adding a song to a playlist does not exist on WP (guys, hire a student or a trainee and he'll code it in a single day!), not to mention syncing issues or fast forwarding wtihin songs. Opting for WP was a big mistake. I had been fooled into believing that Microsoft would care about their OS. Instead they are rolling out GDRs 1 to 1 zillion without any visible improvements. Implementing a notification center also seems to be rocket science that only the guys over at Google and Apple are able to achieve. Really frustrating my Lumia has depreciated so quickly in value. Otherwise I'd happily swap it for an HTC One immediately. My experience with WP has been soooo frustrating. Now I totally understand why they kicked out Ballmer. They're heading straight for disaster while developing at turtle speed.

So true my question is will Ms continue to poor out apps and goodies to android while they wont give us shit ( you tube) that's what pisses me off but maybe
there's a good reason for this but I doubt any one has that reason

Me 2.
My first smartphone was SMT-5600 running WinMo. Since then, I have had Wizard 100, 101, Touch Pro2, Focus, 920 and now 1020. Never Android or iOS.
So Sam....wrong assumption. We are not converts.

Thats the main fault with all Microsoft services, most of them are only for the US, that is one major reason why its not great that they are buying most of Nokia, because Nokia cared for other countries as well and supported them with their services wheas Microsoft does not.

Iteresting that other companies managed to do it. Google works just as well in all EU countries as it does in US, can't say the same about Bing (just one example).
I am in no way a google fan, but just saying if others can do it so can Microsoft, so stop making excuses for them.

In no way am I defending Microsoft. I am stating simple fact. You can view my post history to see I have no qualms with criticizing Microsoft. To make something available ins multiple locales' jurisdictions the product must adhere to local copyright laws, as well as man other. To make such a thing happen there are absurd legal fees. Fees that at this point in time, with the current install base, that are not worth paying. Simple business.

Are you serious? No. The success of some of their products depends on being multi-platform. Xbox Music is one of those that can only be used by the everyday Jane and Joe in the same breath as iTunes if it's available everywhere.

More to the point. Microsoft offers a cross-platform music service. As yet Google doesn't, and Apple's iTunes Radio will only be available in the full desktop client for Windows users. So the service might not be where it needs to be, but they're taking it to the competition at least.